


Stranded

by UrsaeMinoris



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Exploration, Gen, Hurt Shiro (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Animal Death, Keith (Voltron)-centric, Major Character Injury, Missing Scene, POV Keith (Voltron), Sheith if you squint, Survival, depending on how you interpret their relationship in canon, extraterrestrial life, set during s2 ep1 : “across the universe”
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-08 21:56:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15252858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UrsaeMinoris/pseuds/UrsaeMinoris
Summary: This is a missing scene from “Across the universe” (s2 ep1). Aka my answer to the well known question of : where did Keith and Shiro find wood to make that fire at the end of the episode ?In which Keith makes sure Shiro is safe, before exploring their surroundings to find water, food, and what they will need for surviving while trying to contact the rest of the team.---Panting, Keith slowly unfolded his fists, which hurt from gripping the Black Lion’s piloting sticks so hard, and dragged his hand across his sweaty forehead. The lizard creatures were all gone, and Shiro was safe. For now. He needed to check on him. He patted the console and whispered : " Thanks, Black. We saved him."He felt a rumble that sounded like a very low purr - almost infra-sounds.





	1. Securing and regrouping

**Author's Note:**

> Made for [desertkeithweek](https://desertkeithweek.tumblr.com/), for the theme “wildlife” (day2). As that place does look desertic.  
> (You’ll have to wait a bit to get to the wildlife part, because Keith decided to take an entire chapter to take care of Shiro and to prepare before exploring, and I can’t blame him for that ; but there is wildlife. I promise !)  
> As usual, fair warning that English is not my first language and that I don’t have a beta reader !  
> I love feedback, don’t be afraid to comment here or on tumblr (<https://ursae-minoris-world.tumblr.com/> : [Stranded](https://ursae-minoris-world.tumblr.com/post/175783813158/stranded)).

Panting, Keith slowly unfolded his fists, which hurt from gripping the Black Lion’s piloting sticks so hard, and dragged his hand across his sweaty forehead. The lizard creatures were all gone, and Shiro was safe. For now. He needed to check on him. He patted the console and whispered : " Thanks, Black. We saved him."

He felt a rumble that sounded like a very low purr - almost infra-sounds.

 

When Keith stumbled out of the lion, Shiro was sitting on the ground, eyes wide, unresponsive ; he seemed in shock. And who would blame him ?

Also, he did have a big glowing gash in his side.

Keith knelt in front of him and put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

"Shiro. Shiro, I’m here. Are you ok ?"

Shiro blinked and his eyes focused on Keith. A tired smile lit up his face.

"Keith... I’m fine."

He was clearly _not_ fine but Keith let it go for now.

"If I support you, you think you can walk to the Black Lion ?"

First priority : making sure that Shiro stayed out of danger. And if he needed to somehow carry Shiro to safety, he would.

Shiro hesitated a bit, then answered in a strained voice : "I’ll try".

 

Keith helped him up, and they slowly entered the lion. Keith installed his friend in the pilot sit for now. He could stay there while Keith took care of some stuff.

Keith hoped Black would let him pilot again, because Shiro was hardly in state to do it, and he needed to regroup with Red. Worst case scenario, he would have to run to Red again and fly her back here. If she was back online...

Before he did that, he went out again, and collected Shiro’s helmet. He then inspected the carcass of one of the lizard creatures. He used his armor’s scan to check if the flesh was poisonous to humans : Hunk had added that program to their armor’s already existing chemical analyzis system, so that they could help him collecting food on restocking missions, and he was thankful to have it now. The scan didn’t reveal anything toxic.

He cut strips of meat with his blade and put them in an expandable container that he had brought from the lion – they were the same sort than the ones he had used for collecting the scaultrite inside the weblum. It was a messy job, but they didn’t know how long they would be stuck here and it seemed like wasting to not use the animals they had already killed. They could grill it for dinner later.

 

Black did let him pilot once more, so he could land him next to Red who, thankfully, had woken up again too.

He helped Shiro into the pilot seat again, and retrieved the med kit that Coran had had tucked in a storage compartment of the cockpit. At least, the med scan provided by his armor didn’t reveal any internal injury ; just the wound (which the scans didn’t give much information on, sadly), and a nasty collection of bruises. Shiro’s general condition wasn’t the best, and he was weakening.

Keith had had his first aid training at the Galaxy Garrison, of course, but that didn’t include glowing alien magical wounds… He cleaned it the best he could, struggling to keep focused even while Shiro was grunting in pain. He tried to bandage it as well, but the weird luminescent liquid seeping from the wound (it felt like some sort of quintessence) just dissolved the altean healing bio-patch he put on it, much to Keith’s dismay. After a few attempts, he had to give up on it. Shiro was pale, clammy, and his eyes were now closed ; he looked about to pass out, so Keith decided to stop fiddling with the wound and let him rest for now.

 

The sun was starting lower on the horizon, and the temperature was starting to drop. Keith figured he had at least to find water, and also wood to start a fire, if he wanted to grill the meat.

He didn’t know how long they would be stuck here and he preferred to prepare for the long term. Shiro couldn’t pilot for now and there was no way they were leaving Black behind. They had nowhere to go either : each and every attempt so far at communicating with the Castle or the other Lions had failed. He had settled with having both Lions broadcasting a hail signal on Voltron’s frequency as powerful as possible, for now.

 

He leaned above Shiro’s limp body, still sprawled out in the pilot’s chair, and gently brushed away the strands of hair that were stuck to his damp forehead.

"Hey, Shiro ? Can you hear me ?"

Shiro’s eyes slowly opened, and he smiled when he recognized Keith’s face.

"Keith."

"Shiro, I need to get some water and fire wood out there. I’ll do it… as fast as I can. Think you can hold on on your own for a little bit ?"

For a few heartbeats, Shiro looked scared, but then he managed to pull of a tentative smile.

"Yes, of course."

Keith hated to leave him, but right now he didn’t feel he could be of much more help, and they needed this food and water. He also wanted to scout a bit the area for additional sources of food. He put Shiro’s helmet in his lap.

"Here’s your helmet. If you need anything, contact me."

"I’ll be fine."

Keith scowled at that. Shiro’s lips stretched in an amused grin that Keith didn’t know how to react to. He just dropped a water pouch from the Lion’s reserve in Shiro’s lap, too.

"And here’s some water."

 

He hesitated a bit, because he had to get going and there wasn’t much more to add but… he needed to make sure Shiro was hydrated enough before leaving. he weather was hot, Shiro had been injured and had had to deal with those lizard-like creatures.

"You should drink, now." he said, while retrieving the water-pouch, pushing the straw in it, and presenting it to Shiro’s face. The black paladin snatched the drink, thanked Keith, and took a few gulps by himself.

Keith straighten up.

"Ok. Gotta go. If it’s all right with you."

"I’ll manage."

At least this time he seemed serious.

"I won’t be long. Call me on the comms if you need something."

"Yes."

Keith found himself hesitating at the cockpit’s door and turned back to Shiro. When their eyes met, his friend nodded at him ; he seemed to be able to handle himself for now, so Keith nodded back and exited.

 


	2. Finding resources

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Shiro is safe, Keith has to find what they will need to survive : water, wood, food.  
> 

Outside, the landscape reminded him of the desert, but with even less vegetation. But the predators that had attacked Shiro had to eat _something_ when there weren’t stranded voltron paladins to hunt down, so Keith was confident that he’d find smaller animals and plants somewhere. He decided to go investigate the water geysers he had first encountered while looking for Shiro.

 

On his way, he noticed a large shadow on the ground coming really fast in his direction. He looked up and spotted a huge, winged silhouette in the sky. It reminded him of the pterodactyls he had seen pictures of as a child, but massive, black, with a long tail trailing behind it. It’s wingspan had to be about 12 feet. Heart pounding, he searched for cover and quickly ducked under one of the floating rocks nearby. The gigantic creature passed majestically above him without reacting to his presence. Keith watched it fly away in awe. He would give anything to be able to ride a creature like that.

 

He finally arrived near the huge canyon he had had to jump over. Kicking the ground with his heel caused a column of hot water to burst out from the ground. Keith collected some of the water in one of the expandable containers he had brought and analyzed its composition. He was disappointed when he saw it wasn’t safe : it was saturated with sulfates and heavy metals, among other things.

He sighed and tried to look down the ravine. There ! He knew he had spotted some green when he was above it. His helmet provided him with a zoomed in view.

 

There was a river at the bottom, bordered by what appeared to be small bushes, and weird coral-like pink structures that might or might not be vegetation too. At least he had found wood, and if he was lucky, the plants were a sign that the river was less toxic than the water that sprung from the underground. He didn’t have too high hopes, as the plants could have adapted to those conditions, and the river had good chances to be connected to the underground water. But this was also firewood, potential food, and there were ways to get water out of plants if those weren’t toxic.

He walked along the ravine for a while, looking for a safe path down. It was quite a drop.

 

When he finally found a spot, he realized he hadn’t heard anything from Shiro in a while.

"Shiro, are you there ?"

There was a silence filled only with static that had Keith’s throat tighten, but then Shiro’s voice came :

"Keith. I’m doing fine. Been thinking of redecorating the Black Lion’s cockpit, actually."

"What ?"

"The pilot sit looks a lot better with glowing patches on it."

Keith’s heart missed a beat. That was about the quintessence sipping out of the wound, right ?

" What ? Do you need me to come back ?"

"I think I can hold on for a little while."

"Try to apply pressure to the wound. If you’re up to it."

"I do. It would be easier if it didn’t dissolve the bio-pads I try to put on it."

Keith sighed. He hesitated to come back, but they _needed_ food and water. And Shiro’s voice over the comms sounded steady.

"Hang in there. I just need to get some stuff, and I’ll be back as soon as I can. Call me if you need immediate help."

"Will do."

The click indicated Shiro had turned of his mike for now.

 

Keith took a deep breath and started his descent. It implied a lot of climbing down, and a few daring leaps helped by his jetpack.

After at least ten dobashes, he had made it to the bottom of the canyon. It felt a bit like discovering an oasis. Saying the vegetation was lush would be an overstatement, but there was a variety of plants, with green, blue or even orange foliage -or organs that didn’t quite look like leaves.

Shiro must have heard him panting while climbing down, because he shortly switched in the comms to ask if he was all right. Keith confirmed, and said he might have found resources. He broad-casted a view of the place to Shiro. The black paladin congratulated him and closed the channel before Keith could ask how he was doing.

 

A high pitched stridulation was coming from some of the bushes. Keith first expected it to come from some insect-like critter, or maybe some kind of frog, but what he found was more like a very small, bluish, gelatinous blob that was vibrating, causing that noise. It quickly leaped away when he tried to catch it. He noticed that there were a lot of those, causing this buzzy background noise, but they were really hard to capture.

 

He tested the river’s water, and even if it did contain traces of sulfates and metals, it was much more diluted than the one from the geysers, and it should be drinkable, at least for the time being. So he collected some in one of the containers. He also drank some of it : between the hot, dry air, the running and the climbing, he was rather thirsty, and he decided to keep the water-pouch he had brought for Shiro, as it was the most reliable water they had.

 

Squinting at the bottom of the river, he spotted several creatures moving lazily ; they looked like short eels, but crawling on the bed of the river with a dozen small legs protected by an exoskeleton ; their back was covered in rigid green scales that formed something akin to a shell ; along their sides, small gelatinous appendages formed a line. Keith couldn’t tell if they were sensory or if they were some kind of fins. He estimated the animals were about 15 inches long.

His scan indicated they were probably edible, but at this distance it was hard having precise informations. As soon as he stepped in the water to approach them, they scattered. If he wanted to fish for them, he would have to build some equipment or traps. But he could do that later -they already had the giant lizard meat to eat.

 

Speaking of which, he still needed firewood. He found a dead bush, that was dry enough to be a perfect combustible. He used his blade to cut it into transportable pieces, and filled another container with them. He then attached the container to the one filled with water. Thankfully, they were equipped with hover technology that made them quite easy to maneuver.

 

The spheric, succulent blue leaves of the most common bushes appealed to him, and after confirming that they were not poisonous, he tasted one ; it popped under his teeth, releasing a fresh, faintly sweet juice. The earthy aftertaste was less nice, but otherwise it was not bad at all. He added a few leafy branches with the firewood.

 

The coral-like things remained a mystery. They were hard and smooth to the touch, in all colors ranging from yellow to purple. The tallest were as tall as Keith. He wasn’t able to determine if they were some kind of fungi, plants, or something else entirely. He wasn’t able to break a piece away, and when he cut through the bark with his blade, a sharp smelling white juice spilled out, that his scan identified as toxic and inflammatory. He didn’t investigate further. He had what he needed for now, anyway.

 

" Shiro, are you ok ? "

" Keith, I’m ok. I’ve had worse. "

Keith knew he was referring to his time in the arena, and was overwhelmed with the need to punch something.

"I’m coming," he grunted through clenched teeth.

 

Frustratingly, climbing up with two floating containers took a lot longer than going down. It gave him time to notice the small, worm-like creatures hiding in little holes in the rocky wall. They were shy and disappeared in their burrows as soon as he was near to them, so he didn’t mind them.

 

When he finally reached the top of the cliff, he contacted Shiro again.

"Shiro. I’m on my way."

"Good."

"Any news from Voltron ?"

"Still nothing."

"Ok. Comin’."

 

He finally came in sight of the Black Lion. When he leaned above Shiro to check on him, the man drew him into a one armed hug, then laughed at the quintessence stains he had left on Keith’s armor.

Keith helped him out of the Lion, and started a fire outside, cooking the meat. Their meal was actually quite good, and would even have been comforting if Keith hadn’t been that worried about Shiro’s wound.

They stayed by the fire after having eaten, idly watching the sunset. Keith hoped their team would find them soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading this ! It was fun for me to try imagining this planet’s ecosystem.  
> Comments are welcome here, or [on tumblr !](https://ursae-minoris-world.tumblr.com/)


End file.
